Peter's Game
by ChaoticEvil
Summary: Peter Wiggin is accepted into Battle School. See what happens in this short story! Sorry. Will fix weird format soon...


p id="docs-internal-guid-5e9d86c8-7394-f47f-c30c-7b8976044beb" dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter silently watched from his position, half-hidden in the kitchen doorway, watching from the shadows. His eyes were staring intently at the front doorway./p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"A tall man with a strange uniform that Peter had never seen before was talking to Father. It was Peter's birthday, and today he was six years old. Peter knew exactly how young he was. He could tell, by the man's expression, that he was delivering bad news.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter couldn't hear any of their conversation. The man was either telling Father that Peter had failed the observation, or was getting sent off to Battle School. Both of those were bad news to Peter's parents, so it was impossible to tell by the man's expression what he was saying.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter knew that his parents wouldn't miss him as much as they would miss Valentine if she went off to Battle School. But usually Battle School didn't accept very many girls. Then again, Peter had to have gotten his brain from somewhere. Mother and Father were standard idiots, but one or two of his grandparents must have been in some way notable. Valentine couldn't be an idiot. She was a lot smarter than the average kid.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"She might even be smarter than him.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Valentine was younger than Peter was. How was Peter to know whether he was intellectually better than Valentine when he was four years old?p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter saw the man and Father turn to look at him, and then continue their conversation.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"What if Peter wasn't good enough? What if he was too aggressive? His teachers said he had anger issues, but Peter had tried to control himself when they had put the monitor on. For these last two years, he hadn't kicked a single boy in the groin. Not one. A new record. He had broken that record yesterday, right after they took the monitor out.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter hoped as much as he dared to leave this hellhole. Mother and Father either wouldn't or couldn't have any sort of interesting conversation with him. It was always, "That's nice."p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Valentine seemed to refuse to have any conversation with him at all, ever since Andrew was born.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter's parents were instructed to have another child after Peter had taken the tests.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"The officials had thought that if Peter wasn't good enough, Valentine would be their backup.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"But when Peter was four years old, Andrew, Mommy's little Ender, was born, Peter hadn't known what to think. Why had the government ask Peter's parents to have another child?p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"For that was obvious to Peter. Mother and Father would never have another child, a Third, unless they could get away with it. And they could only get away with it if the government had lifted their precious Population Limitation Laws. And the government would only lift those laws if they themselves had wanted to lift those laws; they wouldn't have listened if Mother and Father had begged and pleaded. The government must have wanted these laws to be lifted so that Theresa and Paul Wiggin could have another child.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Why had they wanted Ender to be born?p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Father called, "Theresa, dear! Come over here!"p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"The only plausible reason Peter could think of what that they wanted another backup, just in case Peter and Valentine both failed.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"But why would they wait until then to decide that Andrew Wiggin was to be born?p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"They must have had evidence saying that Peter and Valentine just might fail.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter just wasn't good enough for Battle School.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Why? Peter was obviously smart enough. He was six years old and he talked like a fifteen-year-old. The part of the test that Peter had failed was something else.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"It was obvious from getting glances of articles in the newspaper that starred graduated Command School students that you didn't have to have an IQ of 150 to get into Battle School. No, they were looking for other qualities too, qualities that just might be more important to them than intellectual ability. Personality traits, probably.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter wasn't like other kids his age. He didn't talk like them and he certainly didn't think like those talking turds. But he also didn't act like them. Peter wasn't able to control what he did. His anger would flare up and he would lash back.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"He had tried to control this while the monitor was in place, he really had. But he might not have done as good a job as he thought he was doing.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"He wasn't going to make it into Battle School.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"At least he could be reassured by the fact that Valentine probably wasn't going to make it. She was too nice, too caring, too loving. It was obvious every time she was in the same room as cute little Ender.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"But Ender was obviously going to make it. He was the perfect little kid, always the suck-up. Ender had the perfect personality too, and he was submissive under authority. He was both aggressive and caring.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Peter wanted to barf.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Then he focused on the present again.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""Peter?" his mother asked tentatively.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""Yes?" He wasn't going to cry, he wasn't going to cry...p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""Goodbye." Mother sniffled. Peter could tell she was on the verge of crying.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Wait... goodbye?p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;""What do you mean?" he demanded.p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"His father opened his mouth, and then closed it. His mother had tears forming in her eyes.p  
>p dir="ltr"The man said, "You have been accepted into Battle School, Peter Wiggin."p  
>p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.15; margin-top: 0pt; margin-bottom: 0pt;"Dun dun DUNNNNN... (Sorry, it obviously needed dramatic music.)p 


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